Insight into Indian renaissance

About Mohit

The word which has been used or should I say misused most in Indian political drama is “Secular”. Even without getting into what this word actually means.

I looked up on Wikipedia for the essence of the word which has decided political fortunes of many leaders and parties of India and this is what I got.

“A secular state is a concept of secularism, whereby a state or country purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion, supporting neither religion nor irreligion.[1] A secular state also claims to treat all its citizens equally regardless of religion, and claims to avoid preferential treatment for a citizen from a particular religion/nonreligion over other religions/nonreligion. Secular states do not have a state religion (established religion) or equivalent, although the absence of a state religion does not necessarily mean that a state is fully secular.”

India, for whatever reasons, do have inequality regarding the treatment of its citizens whether its personal laws of Muslims different from other population or Muslims being given a subsidy for their religious pilgrimage HAJ.

Religious symbols of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity merged into one to form OM, Vedic Symbol

This is one dimension of the issue. Every government project is inaugurated with Hindu rituals in a state which calls itself “Secular”. It certainly doesn’t add up to the “Secular” credentials of India. Then there are scholarships and financial assistance dolled out to people from a specific religion in one state ruled by a party which pat itself on the back for being “secular”.

The we have rules and regulation which give government the right over temple funds while no such regualation is done on Sikh Gurudwras or Muslim Waqf-Boards and Mosques.

These examples clearly showcase deviance of India from the universally accepted definition and values of “Secularism”

When we go into the definition of a “Secular” person more amazing results are found and if applied to present scenario in India, very few would want themselves to be called “secular” in that sense.

So in globally accepted definition and values of “secularism” a “secular” person is most likely perceived to be an atheist in India and in a way socially and politically un-touchable.It amuses me then how some politicians and their supporter shout from the rooftop how “secular” they are completely unaware of the fact that by doing so they are presenting themselves in completely opposite manner than what they intended to do.

In India, one more thing is very common. Opposing main opposition party BJP is also considered a benchmark of being “Secular”. And whoever support them is branded “communal”. They really think that “Communal” is antonym of “Secular”.

If you say, you are a Proud Muslim, Sikh or Buddhist, you are good, secular and patriotic. But if you say you are a proud Hindu, all hell break loose. You are branded Fascist, Nazi and what not in a country full of Hindus, which never attacked any other country, never even tried to convert a single person of other religion and was one of the few places to give Jews protection when whole world was thirsty of their blood.

Being Hindu is no different From Being a “Secular” notwithstanding what definition you apply.

I never really understood this word until when I came into contact with people who were un-apologetically having double standard over some very important issues. Hypocrisy comes in every shape and sizes. In every color and shades. In every sound and bits.

Hypocrisy is mostly generated by the intentional absence of logic and ability to see the facts in totality. Hypocrisy thrives on selective morality and worldview over different issues. Hypocrisy is outcome of partial bend of mind.

Take a look at history of India. Its full of foreign invaders plundering it mercilessly and looting its riches. That is a historical fact. To justify the present condition of India totally on it would not be fair as other factors would also count. But to ignore it completely would also not be justified as the amount of wealth which has gone out of India through series of such foreign invasion is too vast to ignore.

What irks me is that whenever I mention of this historical robbery of Indian wealth as one of the main reasons of misery of present day Indians, I am met with hypocritical response from people who are fully convinced that it doesn’t have anything to do with current state of affairs in India. And these are the same people who would quote historical facts about western world to prove how some specific action and events are dependent of certain historic events. The hypocrisy is evident. These same people would justify bombing of some Muslim countries by countries like USA, self-proclaimed DAROGA of the world, on the pretext that these countries were involved in terrorist activities. Height of Hypocrisy !!!

There is no denying that Nehru Dynasty( It sounds like Indian Democracy) couldn’t have done worse managing social and economical affairs of India, but my point is that even bestest management of Indian affairs could not have compensated the socio-economical devastation which British and other invaders brought on India. Just a little glance at the fact that India contributed a whopping 25% of total GDP of world when British came and only 3% when they exited the country, speaks enough volume of what bad effects British brought on India.

Those who deny this fact are like ostrich. And they are plenty.

While talking about hypocrisy, how can I forget the atmosphere at blog of a foreigner living in India. The rule there are very clear cut. There is absolutely no ambiguity whatsoever. The rule is that if you have anything bad to tell about Indian men, specially Hindu men, India, Hinduism, you are most welcome. Write so many passages you wish to describe how this species is worse among all the Homo-Sapiens. As and when you try to defend your views or yourself, a confused moderator, who would actually allow certain people to call other people BASTARD but would not ‘tolerate’ a subtle ‘BS’ in a casual usage, would come and say, its going off-the topic when the truth is that most of the comments before and after the comments of that poor soul were out off-the-topic.

Its very cool to talk about the lack of logic, moral in Hindus of India but same group of people are totally spineless in discussing even the very obvious logical fallacy in Islam.

There is a certain American character (sometimes she visit this blog too) on that blog, who every now and then keeps abusing Indian males in every possible western slang. She can convert any topic in to a discussion of malnutrition children in India. That, no doubt, is a very critical issue on which the future and existence of our country stand. We should do our best to tackle that problem in our best capacity. But then there is time an place for everything. She would always rants about Indian males and is always off-topic but she never get caught. Is it a co-incidenc e or double standards ( a euphemism for hypocrisy)..??

She, in one instance, says that Indian should never talk about the foreign invasion so many generations after freedom. According to her, even Rome was looted and plundered. This argument is like saying that even plants have life so vegetarians should get off their high horse of morality over meat-eaters. On another instance she keeps digging in to the history to look for ‘facts’ to prove her silly points.

She would talk about how many Kashmiri innocent youth have been killed by Army but never talk about the plight of Kashmiri Pundits. Its no surprise considering that she is converted and married in to a Kashmiri Separatist family. She keeps reminding people about wisdom, knowledge and age of Google but is so ignorant that doesn’t even know that citizens of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi require visa to visit each other countries. She think of Indian subcontinent as a ‘Schengen Area’.

Such is the effect of Dubai on the lives of people living in subcontinent and east Asia. It is foreign land which is more accessible than Delhi to the people of Kerala, a southern state of India. They feel at home there. Because, it is said, more Keralites live in UAE than they live in Kerala. Being in the middle of familiar people, earning better money is a very encouraging proposition. And they actually love it.

India has been in close relationship with UAE, which was once part of British colony and used Indian Rupee as their currency. Indians were the one of those those people who arrived in UAE even before its glittering presence came into existence. They have seen it rises from dirt, literally, to become darling of people around the world. They have worked as blue collars workers to CEO’s. They mark their presence as employee as well as employers. But the blue-collar workforce far outnumber those in higher positions.

Its a very interesting fact the UAE is one of few countries where expats are majority in respect of local population. Of the total population residing in UAE only 20% comprises of local Emiratis and rest 80% are expatriates of which 70% are from India. The presence of such a big Indian population is really not an indication of any new-found love for them in the Emirates, nor are they,as people, are wanted more than other nationalities. Its their price tag which is in demand because money is the oldest and most powerful religion in the world.

From a distance Dubai seems a perfect example of muticultural society where more than 200 nationalities are living peacefully together. The last word in the previous sentence is that I high suspect. Together. Isn’t it different from living adjacently to someone but not communicating and knowing nothing about the person or family living or working next to you. Or isn’t it different from being a neighbor coincidentally.

I have earlier worked in UAE earlier for a year. But didn’t got to know the dark realities of social and professional contrast in the people of different nationalities. I knew it from what I read in media reports or on internet. But I got a first hand experience of it when I got a job offer from an Italian company trying to establish its business in Dubai. After a round of various telephonic interviews and analytical test over email, I was called for an interview in Dubai. It was unusual for a company to call a candidate to Dubai. Normally the companies representative come to Mumbai or Delhi to conduct interview. But as most Italian companies area family business and even small recruitment is done by highest officials in the company so they all flew from Italy to conduct the interview.

This was probably my shortest visit abroad. I took a flight in the night at 20:30 reached Dubai at local time 22:30 in night. On the next morning I attended the interview and then boarded the return flight again in the night at 24:00 same day and reach Delhi at 5:00 next morning. All in all it was a total 24 Hours including travelling time. Interview was positive.

When I was doing a search on the average salary, they had requested salary expectation from me, I came to know a very interesting fact. That in Dubai salary are not based on skills and experience but on nationality. Not only UAE but this is the trend all over the middle east. I always hear that Indians are one obsessed with white skin or westerners but I would have to say that obsession of middle eastern businessman with western people or white skin goes beyond any logic.

There is professional hierarchy based on nationality. First comes a white American then British then Emirati, then other whites, then Arabs and then people from subcontinent. I was amazed because it didn’t make any economical sense. For same skills and experience I would always want someone who is asking a little less but here I can see a desperation to hire white people at exorbitant pay packages sometimes 3 times more than other people.

Please have a look at the difference as dummy salaries.

American White-

Base Salary- 2,40,000 AED

Housing Allowance- 1,20,000 AED

Car Allowance- 50,000 AED

Relocation Allowance- 25,000 AED

Education Allowance- 30,000/ Child/Annum ( for max 3 children)

Total- AED 5,25,000

Indian-

Base Salary- 84,000AED

Housing Allowance- 60,000 AED

Car Allowance- 36,000 AED

Relocation Allowance- NA

Education Allowance- NA

Total- AED 1,80,000

This is usual scenario in the case of same skills and experience.

The so called Muslim Ummah doesn’t apply in Arabian peninsula of Islamic world. Fellow Arabian Muslims are discriminated against western people. All the calls of Islamic brotherhood now comes across as fanatical cacophony to overpower the real issues and to gain political mileage.

India is not called a Land of surprises and contradiction without a reason. For example lets talk about its religious practices. In most of the modern religions people built their place of worship at location which are easily accessible. Most of the Churches , Mosque and Gurudwaras would sit at a very pretty good location with in the city. But just look at us Hindus. There is not a single entity in the nature we have not utilized to make our temples. More the difficult location, more the famous and pious it is.

Amarnath, Kailash-Mansarovar, Vaishnodevi, BadriNath-Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kanyakumari are some of the well known religious pilgrimages which are testimony to this mostly ignored matter of facts and faith which seemed to encourage a physical activity, and a difficult one, to perform our religious duty. Over the time we have neglected our tradition which for me is like an ancient version of ‘Come n Play’ campaign run by Delhi Government during CWG Games.

Apart from the physical activity and sporting environment there is a joyous celebration related to Hindu festivals and religious events. Otherwise most modern religions are very serious to the extent of boring in their outlook and process. No offense but I have rarely seen people in Church, Mosque or even Gurudwara smiling. People act as if they have been given a punishment. Some People take their religion so seriously. But in Hinduism its totally different. We celebrate our religion in loudest of voices and highest of places.

One such religious pilgrimage is Vaishno-Devin in Katra in J&K.

The temple is near the town of Katra, in the Reasi district in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is one of the most revered places of worship in India. The shrine is at an altitude of 5300 feet and a distance of approximately 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) from Katra. Approximately 8 million pilgrims (yatris) visit the temple every year and it is the second most visited religious shrine in India, after Tirumala Venkateswara Temple.

One have to get to the town of Katra to start the journey and the best way is to get to Jammu and then take Pre-paid taxis or Buses. After reaching in Katra town you would have plenty of hotels and Dharamshala to choose from. But don’t expect the standards of hotel rooms as found in other touristic place. They are very expensive for the facilities they provide. Renowned hotel chains are preferable if you don’t have any budget constraints.

The journey start from the place Baand-Ganga, and it has two sub-destination salong the way to Bhawan, the main temple, and they are called ‘Ardhkumari’, ‘Sanjhi-Chat’ and finally Bhawan. There is a temple of Bhairon Baba above the Bhawan and its considered that the pilgrimage of Vaishno-Devi is incomplete without visiting Bhairon-Baba.

Upto Ardhkumari, which is on halfway as the name suggests, we have a continuous line of small eateries, restaurants, book/dvd stalls and some general shops selling items of religious importance. Its more of a religious picnic. Everybody from children to elders in their 80s enjoy the atmosphere which is filled with chanting of “Jai Mata Di” with prefix of “Aage wale”, “Piche wale”, “Zor se Bolo”, ‘Awaz na aayi”.

There is a certain camaraderie among people which is unusual in normal lives. Nobody pushes you, poor and rich all are same here though not fully free from commercialization , you get greeted by strangers. You get support and encouragement from your fellow devotees.

From Ardhakumari there are two different ways to approach the Bhawan. One is an old one which is difficult, relatively narrow and steep. But its somewhat short. Another alternate way was made to make the journey more easy and comfortable. This way is much broader, comfortable and scenic. We have MNC eateries like CCD also.On this road even two truck can move side by side. And thankfully for older people battery driven tempos are also plied on this way.

The whole journey from Katra to Bhawan and back can take up to 20 Hours or even more. Its very demanding physically.But you can use Pitthus and Khacchar but its amazing to see that the people with even disabilities go to the place and complete the journey.

Helipad at Sanjhi Chat

Another comfortable and alarmingly cheap way of going to Bhawan is by Helicopter and the price is dirt cheap. For just 700 INR. Rarely do we get a chance to ride a chopper, though now airplane is in the reach of general public. So this is an exciting idea and a inexpensive one. Helicopter takes you from Katra to Sanjhi Chat from where you have to move on your legs up to Bhawan.

Vaishn-Devi

Once specific incidence over there consolidated my faith on the fact of life that whatever we have achieved in life is much more than what millions of people can only dream of. So don’t always complain.

A HERO ON THE FLOOR.

This guy whose both legs were disabled crossed our way at two kilometers away from Bhawan. I was just speechless and shocked. He was using the empty water bottle to slide on the floor and thus moving forward. The problems in my life and others seemed nothing. All the problem we mention in our daily lives were looking like a beautiful joke to myself. I literally clapped and had my eyes wet. God bless him.

On a religious journey, I confronted the cruel realities of life of people and realized that whatever I have is enough than I deserve. I thanked God for that and I couldn’t ask anything except that to wish that this world becomes more beautiful and livable for all.

It has been a long since I posted here anything. Actually the things were happening too fast to write about them. I happened to visit Rajasthan, Goa, Maharashtra, J&K and Punjab. I worked hard in office. Partied harder. (For me party means being near to family and food an occasionally a drink 😉 ) Now I feel like translating those experience in words.

I have in past years traveled more countries in the world than states I have visited in my country. And I regret that. Because India has been gifted with unmatched variety of tourist locations which are full of natural, social and cultural beauty You don’t have to worry about visa too, obviously only if you are an Indian.

What I have realized is that diversity of India and its people is amazing. On one hand you have conservative areas of UP, Rajasthan where you can still have a game with its charming history of fighters and forts and on the other hand there is Goa whose character is anything but Indian in a general sense. Its like any other coastal town in Europe specially Portugal. Not denying that image is also the reflection of its historical connection with Portuguese culture.

Sometimes its history of various culture or sometimes its culture of history that makes this part of the world an amazing thing to look and visit at.

I would in coming day be sharing such small and amazing Indian stories with you all of the places which I visited in last months.

Recently I was seeing a debate on a news channel over the state and future of Kashmiri Pundits, who are almost forgotten by their country, their people and once their neighbors Kashmiri Muslims. Kashmiri pundits are never considered a party in the issue which is so close to their heart and home. Because they don’t form a group big enough to affect the outcome of any election in J&K or in rest of India.

The real life accounts of Kashmiri Pundits on how they were forcibly threatened, raped murdered, killed, burned and perished is a heart-breaking story. It attacks your sensibilities instantly as an Indian. Most of the arguments from the separatist and Pakistan side are based on the fact that Kashmir is Muslim majority state and that is why it should have been joined with Pakistan and not India. What these people forget that-

First- Having a nation on the basis of majority-religion has been proved a failed idea and can not guarantee a peaceful and prosperous country-Just have a look at the condition of Muslims in Pakistan.

Second- Muslim-majority in Kashmir is a relatively new phenomenon as the vast history of that area clearly indicates that the region was a Hindu/Baudhhist cultural center for a long time. So while defining the majority should we consider the history of an extended period in past rather than the recent past.

Now come to the reality of Kashmir. The terrorism is always justified as the reaction to the “injustice” done by security forces. But this arguments falls flat when we observe that the start of militancy in Kashmir happened only in the late eighties. Why not before? Because by then Pakistan had understood well that it can not beat India in a traditional warfare so it applied gorilla tactics to destabilize Kashmir and instill fear in the common men of Kashmir.

What was more appalling was that the same Kashmiris who were living with Kashmiri Pundits for centuries started threatening and killing them mercilessly leaving no option for Kashmir Pandits but to leave the valley. And those Kashmiri Muslims were same people who talk about the unjust and unfair killing of Kashmiris by Indian forces. So here the face of obscene hypocrisy on the part of Kashmiri Muslims was uncovered and their intentions brutally expressed in the form of fearful slogans and brutal killings.

Now why Kashmiri Hindus were targeted ? Because they were soft target and considered an easy prey to satisfy the ego of extremist-Islam against the Hindus of India. It was a very obvious hint that Hindus/Indians would not be tolerated in Kashmir. What surprises most is that why it was unheard for so long? Was Indian government not capable of defending its Hindu citizen in a Hindu-majority country from handful of Muslim Extremist? No, they were fully capable. But all things boil down to the same dirty face of politics in India where its almost sinful to raise your voice for the right of Hindus. Because they are so fractured in their cultural, social and political affiliation that they can hardly affect any policy decision as a collective group. So most of the ‘secular-parties’ of India lick the toes of Muslims vote-bank for two reasons. One because they vote in hoards and they collectively can changes the direction and state of any election.

The height of Muslim-appeasement in this country is that even hard-core terrorist like Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab are treated like state-guest and not hanged as per the supreme courts order because it can ‘hurt’ Muslim sentiments. While it is very unfortunate for the tax-payer of India to contribute to the expenses of these dreaded terrorists, its also not good for Muslims to become part of evil designs of so-called ‘secular’ parties. Because such decision try to reinforce the popular assumption that Muslims of India have sympathy for terrorists which is not true.

There can not be a reconciliation till the perpetrators of inhumane crime done on Kashmiri Pundits are not brought to justice. All talks of Kashmiri Pundits going back to valley is a farce till the article 370 is not removed and UCC(Uniform Civil Code) is not applied in India.

As petrol prices in India have been deregulated, they keep climbing towards upwards direction more often than not. But unfortunately our salary remain fix for whole year. To fight the effect of price rise of petrol, we have to be innovative all the time. We have to keep inventing new ways to set our monthly expenses at minimum level. One of those two methods that I found very effective was to get CNG-KIT fitted in our car. It was a one time investment which would recover it’s cost in just 4-5 month considering the amount of travel I have to do in a month. With CNG the cost of fuel per kilometer come at a drastic low level of 1.6 Rs/Km, which is around 5 Rs/Km with petrol. Second solution was to POOL my car. I advertised on many car-pooling website and got many response. Of all those, I finalized one lady who resides in close proximity in my neighborhood and her office is just 4 km apart from mine ;).

Having pooled my car and using an alternative cheap and green fuel solved at least a major part of my worries about petrol prices. Now I can drive as long as I want without worrying about the tantrums of oil rich countries. (But I suspect they can affect the price of CNG also-My worst fear )

The lady who pooled my car has returned from USA and is in government Job. Her husband is still there in states. She has come here to raise her children here in India. Her reasons for shifting here from USA were-

* She thinks that school education in USA is not good and that she wanted her children to have schooling in India.

* She don’t want to sacrifice her government job. Yes she was on a five year leave from duty.

Both reasons were interesting for me. I never thought that school education of India was better than US. Not that I don’t find it good enough.I do, but I also think same for other western countries specially USA, considering the level of higher education in that country from what is reported in media and education circles.

I was even more surprised to know that we can take 5 years leave from government office. When her husband got a job in US, she had just joined her job and then she had to move there. And now when her leave period was going to be ended, she returned to India and joined the job. What she is ignoring perhaps is the side-effect of this transition on her children. She has two babies, one a 9 year girl and second a 2 year boy. Girl child, though has retained Indian accent as she was four when she shifted to US, speaks very fluent English and also has a strong reluctance to speak her mother tongue, in this case Bengali, or other major Indian languages like Hindi, because she think she can be mocked by her friends in school. So she think its better not to speak it at all. But if she continues to behave like this, she would become more of an ‘attraction’ rather than a ‘talent’. She has been made class-head and is appointed to teach English to other students. Inability to speak any other Indian language may hamper her social and professional life as Hindi is defacto National language of India and its impossible to survive in north India without being able to speak Hindi.

The baby boy has got American accent as he was born there and only speaks English as of now. I think it would be very difficult for him to shed that. Transition from one culture and society to another is easy for adults but it confuses children very much. Though its useful to encourage your children to speak English, as this is de-facto official language of the world, but at the same time we must make sure that our children must be taught where they belong so that the effect of transition is handled better by them.

Lets back to government office issue and give me freedom to ask one question from who are reading this post-

Can we avail five years leave in a government organization in other countries also ?

OK, I could worry less about that because I am more interested in that I got someone who would share some part of the money spent on CNG for my car. 🙂

After the buzz Kolaveri di , a Taminglish song from the upcoming Tamil movie “3” created, my interest in the Tamil language went from ‘a little’ to ‘a lot’. Just for the information, the singer of the song is Dhanush, son-in-law of Tamil superstar Rajnikant.

Study of languages can become a boring and cumbersome exercise. But if you have some patience to appreciate small and interesting events that transformed languages or formed some new languages, then it can be quite an interesting reading. For example it would fascinates people across the globe that what is ‘Cow’ in English is ‘Kuh’ in German and ‘Gau’ in Hindi/Sanskrit. And that what is ‘Father’ and ‘Brother’ in English actually become ‘Pater’ and ‘Frater’ in Latin, ‘Pater’ and ‘Phrater’ in Greek and ‘Pitra’ and ‘Bhratra’ in Sanskrit. And there are thousands examples such as this.

I guess what most of the readers would be thinking now. But let me surprise you all, I am not going to draw some similarities in languages of India and Europe or propagating the idea of a common language in Europe from which these language evolved. In fact I strongly disagree with any such ideas of prototype language which existed in prehistoric Europe and that languages of India were evolved from that. My opposition for this PIE theory is for two reasons.

1. This is often used as a basis to reinforce AIT(Aryan Invasion Theory) which is very ambitious project for some Europeans.

2. This has no substantial or even circumstantial evidence to its disposal.

There is no doubt about the intellectual and analytic abilities of European/Western linguists. In my opinion, they are best of the lot. They have actually done a great work on how phonetically similar are words in language of India and Europe. But when I started having a preliminary comparison between the languages of South-India(which are grouped in ‘Dravidian-Language’ family) and North-India( which are considered, by western linguists, as part of Indo-European language group), I was astonished to see similarity in structure of consonants, vowels and sentences between two. I was very surprised how could anyone put these two in different language group. In all practicality similarity in North-Indian and South-Indian languages is far more visible than the similarities between Hindi/Sanskrit and English/Latin. How could any linguists miss that?

Its here to be noted a high number of the linguistic studies are done by Western scholars and whatever they have/could come up with was considered universal classification of language across the world both by eastern and western linguists without examining the findings further.

The whole edice of historical linguistics related to the Indo-European family is based on the assumption that Hittite around 2000 BC is the earliest member of the family and Vedic Sanskrit belongs to the period 1200-1000 BC. A major effort is needed to put together a new framework to understand the pre-history of the Indo-European language family.

We all understand how the 19th century construction of the Orient by the West satisfied its needs of self-denition in relation to the Other. To justify its ascendancy, the Other was defined to be racially mixed and inferior; irrational and primitive; despotic and feudal. This definition was facilitated by a selective use of the texts and rejecting traditional interpretations, an approach that is now called Orientalism. The terms in the construction were not properly dened. Now we know that to speak of a *pure” race is meaningless since all external characteristics of humans are defined in a continuum. In the 19th century atmosphere of European triumphalism, what obtained in Europe was taken to be normative. With hindsight it is hard to believe that these ideas were not contested more vigorously.

Although this was the age which marked the true beginnings of modern science, old myths continued to exercise great power. When it was found that the languages of India and Europe were related in structure and vocabulary, the West responded with a tissue of scholarly myths. These myths were steeped in erudition, informed by profound knowledge of Hebrew and Sanskrit, fortied by comparative study of linguistic data, mythology, and religion, and shaped
by the eort to relate linguistic structures, forms of thought, and features of civilization. Yet they were also myths, fantasies of the social imagination, at every level. The comparative philology of the most ancient languages was a quest for origins, an attempt to return to a privileged moment in time when God, man, and natural forces still lived in mutual transparency. The plunge into the distant past in search of `roots’ went hand in hand with a never forgotten faith in a meaningful history, whose course, guided by the Providence of the one God, could be understood only in the light of Christian
revelation.

Although the term Aryan never had a racial connotation in the Indian texts, the scholars insisted that this was the sense in which the term ought to be understood. It was further assumed that Aryan meant European by race. By doing so Europe claimed for itself all of the “Aryan” texts as a part of its own forgotten past.The West considered itself the inheritor of the imagination and the mythic past of the Aryan and the idea of the monotheism of the Hebrew. This dual inheritance was the mark of the imperial destiny of the West. Despite his monotheism, the poor Jew, since he lacked Aryan blood, should have seen the dark silhouette of the death camps and the rising smoke of the ovens.

On the other hand, the Asiatic mixed-blood Aryan had no future but that of the serf. He could somewhat redeem himself if he rejected all but the earliest core of his inheritance, that existed when the Aryans in India were a pure race. For scholars such as Max Muller this became ultimately a religious issue. Echoing Augustine, Muller saw in his own religious faith a way for progress of the Asiatic. We would smile at it now but he said, Christianity was simply the name `of the true religion,’ a religion that was already known to the ancients and indeed had been around `since the beginning of the human race.(see Olender, 1992) But ideas bad and good{ never die. Muller’s idea has recently been resurrected in the guise that Christianity is the fulllment of Vedic revelation! (e.g. Panikkar,1977).

A linguistic “Garden of Eden” called the proto-Indo-European (PIE) language was postulated. Europe was taken to be the homeland of this language for which several wonderful qualities were assumed. This was a theory of race linking the Europeans to the inhabitants of the original homeland and declaring them to the original speakers of the PIE. By appropriating the origins, the Europeans also appropriated the oldest literature of the Indians and of other PIE speakers. Without a past how could the nations of the empire ever aspire to equality with the West? There are several problems with the idea of PIE. It is based on the hypothesis that languages are dened as xed entities and they evolve in a biological sense. In reality, a language area is a complex, graded\ system of several languages and dialects of a family. The degree of homogeneity in a language area is a re ection of the linkages, or interaction within the area. For a language distributed widely in the ancient world, one would expect several dialects. There would be no standard proto-language.

The postulation of PIE together with a specic homeland in Europe or Turkey does violence to facts. There is no evidence that the natives of India for the past 8,000 years or so have looked any different from what they look now. The internal evidence of this literature points to events that are as early as 7000 years ago (Kramrisch, 1981) and its geography is squarely in the Indian region. If there was no single PIE, there was no single homeland either. The postulation of an \original home”, without anchoring it to a definite time-period is to fall in the same logical trap as in the search for invasions and immigration. Tree or animal name evidence cannot fix a homeland. In a web of languages, different geographical areas will indicate tree or animal names that are specific to these areas. When the European side of the IE languages are examined, the tree or animal names will favour those found in its climate and when the Indian side of the languages are examined, the reference now will be to its flora and fauna.

It was Bishop Caldwell (1875) who suggested that the South Indian languages of Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telegu formed the separate Dravidian family of languages. He further suggested that the speakers of the proto-Dravidian language entered India from the northwest. Other scholars argued against this Dravidian invasion theory. Scholars have argued that this attempt to see both the North and the South Indian languages coming to the subcontinent from outside (West Asia) as another example of the preoccupation with the notion of the “Garden of Eden”. In reality, the problem of what constitutes an Aryan or a Dravidian, in the biological or cultural sense in which it is generally posed, is insoluble. The problem of Aryan and Dravidian is a conflation of many categories. Indian texts do not use the term Arya or Aryan in a linguistic sense, only in terms of culture. There is reference in the Manu-Smriti where even the Chinese are termed Aryan, proving that it is not the language that denies this term. The South Indian kings called themselves Aryan as did the South Indian travelers who took the Indian civilization to Southeast Asia.

The breakdown of the old paradigm calls for considerable effort to create a new one to take its place. In particular, the emerging chronological framework can be used to examine the relationships between Sanskrit and other ancient Indo-European languages. Etymological dictionaries should be revised to take note of the antiquity of Vedic Sanskrit. If PIE did not exist, can we extrapolate from the earliest layer of Vedic Sanskrit for correlations with life in prehistoric Harappan India?

Note- Some of the texts, findings, and conclusion in the above post are inspired from the studies and thesis written by some learned individuals and I would specially name one Mr Subhash Kak who I referred most for my writing on the subject matter.

In 1947 we got Independence, anyhow, in a changed global scenario after world war-2, which saw the decreasing grip and clout of British Empire and rise of a new super power, that was, United States of America. Financial burden of a lengthy war and concern of rebuilding and restructure made it difficult for British to retain its colonies as protection and rehabilitation of mainland became their top priority. But sole credit of Independence was, somehow, robbed by Congress politicians especially Mr Nehru, supported by vast popularity of Mr. Gandhi. Nehru was a shrewd strategist. Mr Gandhi was a noble soul with poor vision. Ironically, after Independence, all of those who were fighting for greater and united India suddenly surrendered to compromise on the partition of India for their personal agendas. On the top of that was Mr Nehru.

I still wonder why Nehru, top leader of congress, which presents itself as a champion of the ‘secular’ cause, did not accept Mr Gandhi’s suggestion to give up the post of prime minister to Jinnah, for the sake of winning trust of Muslims and the cause of united India. This in fact would have given much credibility to congress’s claim of being flag-bearer of ‘secularism’ and ‘patriotism’, instead they were busy building their political-castle with the pieces of country and its countrymen. If both Mr Nehru and Mr Jinnah had settled their personal issues in a responsible manner then we hadn’t seen such a devastating civil war and after-partition riots after our great country was cut into two pieces. It would have made Kashmir issue, militancy in J&K, exodus of Kashmir Pundits, wars of 1965 and 1971 a mere wild imagination of conspiracy-theorist, and may be, may be India would have become one of the most prosperous and powerful country in today’s world.

But Mr Nehru and Mr Jinnah both choose them over country and became PM of their respective countries at the cost of lives of millions. After unfortunate murder of Mr Gandhi, India came in the grip of Nehru family and is still to liberate itself from the clutches of dynasty politics. The generation which was born at that time considered Nehru and Gandhi Clan as the sole proprietor of India.

What happened afterward was a classic case of transforming the psyche and soul of the nation into “Corrupt and Complacent” through a systematic approach of institutionalizing graft, implementing Quota-Raj, and lack of transparency in the garb of democracy. Today we stand at crossroads and have to make a choice from the couple of not-so bright alternatives. One one side there is Congress which has ruled us for most past of post-independence history but failed to deliver. At other side is BJP which had shown promise and was given a chance once, did some good but failed to deliver when it mattered most. For example Gujarat. That was the best opportunity for them to establish themselves as a responsible party and wash their bad reputation of anti-Muslim political group. But failed to act. For now, the biggest disadvantage for them is they are vulnerable to these accusation and minority communities can be polarized against them. They also lack charismatic leadership and direction. Then there is left-front where “Nothing is Left” for them in the country other than Kerala and Bengal. So we can’t expect much from them. Then we are left with third front which consists of SP, BSP, DMK, AIDMK, TRINMUL CONG, AGP and NCP. But this front actually never came on front to have a national agenda.

Here one point has to be noted that BJP has gradually toned down from its extremist stance regarding minority issues and is making conscious effort to win the trust of community. More convincing fact is that they have also shown development and governance in the states ruled by them like Gujarat, Karnataka, Bihar, MP, Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh but not without a fair amount of charges of Corruption.

So nobody is a clear winner to rule this country. Almost every party has some tainted people. So what we are left with? We have to choose one which is less corrupt of lot, specially when no party is looking as competent and confident as it should be. Recent agitation against corruption and their brutal curbing by government has made us to believe that direct participation in the electoral process is the ‘Only way to victory’. Because we can never fight with government machinery. We should participate in the formation of government, directly or indirectly, to bring the changes.

So I appeal my brethren sincerely that please VOTE for whoever you believe is right. BUT VOTE.

For this to happen, we have to come out of our comfort zone and VOTE. Isn’t it ironic that only 50% or less goes to vote in the largest democracy of world?

Your co-operation will get us to the top of the world. And I have a slogan for this campaign , which you have to spread !

Living in Delhi/NCR have some advantages, as this is the capital of India so there is no dearth of places where you can party like a king. Delhi has worst reputation among all metros as far as the safety of women is concerned. This is statistical fact but we better don’t apply it at all places and all time in the city, so its a bit exaggerated. People having a rare or no link with this part of the country make perception based on heavily sensational material available on news channel. They(news-wallah) telecast such unfortunate incidents at-least a million times so that even a rare incident looks like the culture and ritual of the city, which can scar the hell outta any sane and normal person.

But when you actually go out in the city, all the bad reputation which this city has earned disappear in the fumes of positive vibes which you feel all around, only if you are wise and receptive. I have traveled in many countries in the India and world and I can say without a hesitation that no city is as lively as Delhi. It has an unmatched charisma and that is why it was the darling of many rulers of India, native or foreign. Whenever I ask the girls in my circle of relative/friends/colleagues if they feel unsafe in the city or would like to shift to another city in India then most of them answer in negative. They say, though they are concerned about the negative image of the Delhi, but the love for this city is too strong to leave it. They are not frog-of-well types but the ones who are well-traveled. So I can justifiably say that fearful rejection of this joyous and beautiful city by nerdy statisticians is just another case of generalization gone awfully wrong.

Hotel Entrance

I am not a party guy in the way that I don’t feel like going to a pub/club( damn, I don’t even know the difference between two) every weekend. I like to have a private life with my family. I don’t even like attention, good or bad. In fact after driving around the city in a car heated by blower only to see poor children shivering in a near-zero temperature on traffic signals, I don’t have moral arrogance to over-power my guilt and kindness. But few days are meant to be selfish.

Pool Area

That was one of those rare days when I went to a five star hotel in the city to celebrate new year. The party was at Nyx, The Royal Plaza. The location was in Lutyen’s Delhi. In front, behind, adjacent to the location of hotel were either other luxury hotels like Le Meridian and Shangri-La, or banglows of some political bigwigs. It felt like a different world. A very artificial one. And pretending also. After some usual security screening and courtesy welcome, we headed straight to the venue, Nyx. OB vans of some news channels were stationed in the premises of the Hotel and I knew it was going to be a rocking party. We were the first one to reach at the entrance of the club. As there was some talk of blockade of all roads leading to Cannaught Place by police after 8:00 pm, so I rushed early to the place.

Hotel lobby

The club was decorated with a blue theme. Lights, carpets, paintings, dresses of dancers( Belly dancers from Turkey ) were all blue, as you can see in the pics. As we reached much before the action would start at 10:00 pm, we were there even before it was 9:00 pm, so we thought it better to explore the other sections of hotel like lobby, adjacent bar and the area around pool.

Way to NYX

I got to know from the staff that there were actually four parties to be held at different location in the hotel and ours was most expensive and grand, (I know she was telling this to every guest 😉 ). Almost half of the visitors were foreigners. Most of them, specially girls, were dressed impeccably, sharp and to the occasion. Some white guys, for the reason only God knows, were there in casual pyjamas and t-shirts with a water bottle in hand and chappals in their feet. I don’t know what these guys were up to. They must be the resident guest of the hotels. Anyway after roaming for some time in the hotel purposelessly, we went finally to the Nyx, lounge bar. To no surprise of ours still we were the first to reach there. Only some staff persons were there arranging for the grand party to follow.

People kept coming, usually couples, and going because there was nothing to do there other than having some drinks. Then came the round of snacks and people became busy as Delhites are so fond of food. As I am vegetarian, most of the stuff was out of my scope and interest. Then I contacted a staff and asked if the cuisine was specifically designed for non-vegtarians, he replied in negative and left after promising me some vegetarian stuff. Never to appear again. After some time I contacted another one. Same scenario. He also disappeared. Same thing happened for two other staff. Then I surrendered, and without concerning the staff again, compromised with sipping the vodka mixed with Limca. Well, this was not how it was going to end. After some time I had all those waiters coming to me with vegetarians snacks like samosa, cutlet and spring rolls all together. I was surprised. It was a scene in itself with all other people looking at us as if we were some VVIPs. Thanks to being guest of a five star hotel. 🙂

Belly Dancer

At around 10:45, the activities around the dance floor started increasing. People were waiting for who was going to be first one to invade dance floor. A middle age woman took the lead and stepped on what was still a no-man’s land. Other people would follow. Now it was looking like a party. My wife started pulling me towards floor but , as I forgot to bring my cigarette, I was keen on buying the cigarette from lobby downstairs. It was a brief and usual confrontation. After buying the pack of cigarette, and went straight to her, hold her hand and took her to dance floor to spice up the dance floor till last light is dimmed.

We danced, danced and danced without being concerned of what was happening around us. It was only when I went to have a smoke I realized guys from a renowned news channel were actually telecasting all the action dance floor live on TV. It was new for me. Then we were told to vacate the dance floor for five minutes as the belly dancer would entertain us. She danced on ‘Senorita’ , a song from Bollywood movie “Zindagi na Milegi Dobara”. It was a brief and ok performance. Some girls and guys also danced with her and they she left.

Jasmine Restaurant

At sharp 12:00 pm, the fireworks from the lawn surrounding the swimming pool started. It went on for around 30 minutes. That was another spectacle of night which reminded our self of Diwali. After the fireworks, we again went to the dance floor and danced for 15 minutes. We wanted to be there whole night. At around 1:00 am we went for the dinner. It was the worst dinner I had in A five star hotel. There was actually nothing for vegetarians, and I am sure it was no better for non-vegetarians also. I had to adjust with Nan and Dal Makhani. Yes deserts had more varieties and I loved Kulfi and Gajar ka Halwa.

While in the lobby, on our way to the parking, one member from the crew of one news channel complimented us and said that you people enjoyed the most. That was icing on the cake. An appreciation no matter how small always makes you happy.